21st century Goguryeo - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Book 1 Chapter 1-2 Turbulence! Korea: The New Situation

October 9th, 2015, 18:10 – Daehan University at Seoul, Sungbook-gu, Anam-dong
“In-jik! What are you going here? Isn’t today a holiday? I’m just here for the study group.”
It was Kang Kyoung-ho, the friend who initiated the blind date last time.
“Kyoung-ho? I’m on way out of the library; there was a book I needed.”
“Wow, look how mature you got, In-jik! You really came to school during a holiday for a book. By the way, that blind date was awesome. My partner, Seo Eun-hye, is awesome too. Jae-yun’s partner was really pretty too. Hahaha, you missed out, man!”
Everytime Kang Kyoung-ho would sees In-jik, he would brag about the blind date, taking revenge on In-jik for missing the opportunity. While Kang Kyoung-ho bragged as usual, he noticed Kim In-jik’s face.
“Look at you! Why are you slowly turning into a zombie? Did something happen to you?”
“No.”
“Just tell me! I will take care of it, brother. You’re regretting missing out on that blind date, right?”
“Nope, I don’t care about it, but let’s drink if you’re free today.”
Kim In-jik wanted to brag about him hacking into the security system to his friend Kang Kyoung-ho so badly. But he couldn’t tell him that he hacked all the way into Area 51, no matter how close they may be as friends.
“I heard that even US citizens are killed without warning if they try to enter without permission, and taking data from them is the most serious offense…” he thought. “If something bad happened to him just because I told him about it… I can’t let that happen.” 2
Kim In-jik asked Kang Kyoung-ho to drink together to get rid of this suffocating feeling.
“Drinks tonight? Sounds good! Lets go to the pub ‘Tipplers.’ There’s a lot of cute workers there, yeah?”
“Alright, let’s go there!”
* * *
October 9th, 2015, 23:00 – Tippler Pub at Seoul, Sungbook-gu, Anam-dong
“Drink, drink! I don’t know what happened, but let’s drink until we die.”
Kang Kyoung-ho, who was very drunk from drinking five pints of beer, yelled at Kim In-jik to drink more as he handed another glass of beer to him. However, Kim In-jik could not get his eyes off of TV, as the 19th president was just elected.
“It’s been confirmed just now, that out of the 90 percent of the votes counted so far, 45 percent voted for Seo Hyun-woo from the One Revolution party, and he has been elected to be the 19th president of Korea. Oh Dong-gil from the Alliance party, who had been in first place in the beginning, moved down to second at 34 percent voting rate, and Yeon Gil-soo from the current ruling Korean Welfare party was defeated at 10 percent. Despite that the voting count isn’t done yet, it seems certain to say that Candidate Seo Hyun-woo is elected, and at the same time, it is surprising to see that the result came out so differently than the poll. Now, we will talk to reporter Lee Na-kyoung, who is at the office of the elected candidate Seo Hyun-woo. Reporter Lee Na-kyoung, how is the atmosphere over there?”
“Hi, I am currently at the office of the elected candidate, Seo Hyun-woo. Currently here, even from the outside of the building to the inside of the office, you can hear thousands of people that are screaming for joy, calling the name of the candidate Seo Hyun-woo. There are police on guard because of the large crowd. The press conference for elected Candidate Seo Hyun-woo has just started.”
Elected Candidate Seo Hyun-woo stood on the platform, receiving cheers from his supporters.
“Hello, citizens of Korea, and thank you. Your warm attention and support has brought me to this place. Currently, our country is going through a hard time economically, politically, and is in danger of another Korean war. However, I believe we can take this crisis as an opportunity for us to step into a better world for us, together. Didn’t we fight through it in 1998 during the IMF crisis? Didn’t we make world history fighting through IMF in the shortest time, with every one of us together? I dare to say. Because I have you, the people, I will run as the president confidently…”
“Yo, since when did you get into politics?” Kang Kyoung-ho asked. “You’re so focused on that TV! Did you even vote?” He waved his hands in front of Kim In-jik’s face, annoyed by how In-jik was just staring at the television while they were in the middle of drinking.
“You think I didn’t? It feels nice that someone I supported got elected. I feel good today, so the drinks are on you, right? Cheers!” Kim In-jik turned around from the television and looked at Kang Kyoung-ho, trying to toast with his beer glass.
“What the – so I’m buying the drinks because you’re having a good day today? Well alright, cheers!”
After a toast that could almost break a glass, they had a good gulp of beer. In-jik did not know if it was because of the good election result or the beer, but his anxiety seemed to diminish as he spent the whole night drinking with Kang Kyoung-ho.
* * *
November 1st, 2015, 10:00 – The Oval Office in the Blue House, Seoul, Jongro-gu
After President Seo Hyun-woo’s voting rate was finalized at 51.3 percent, he started to serve as president right when he was elected. Despite that President Seo Hyun-woo’s inauguration day was supposed to be 70 days from the day of the election, the absence of a president in the country caused his official inauguration along with the start of his term to be confirmed for October 31st. The new president specifically requested the transition team to prepare the inauguration celebration on a small scale.
President Seo Hyun-woo had his first official task of his five-year term: receiving the report about the August 15th Pyeongyang bombing attack from the investigation team on the day after his inauguration day.
“Chairman Yoon Eun-gook, what have you confirmed about the August 15th Pyeongyang bombing attack on our side?”
Chairman Yoon Eun-gook was from the investigation team for the Pyeongyang bombing attack. The team was formed while the Prime Minister was in office, serving as the interim for the president who died during the August 15th Pyeongyang bombing attack. He answered the new president’s questions as he looked at the report.
“Yes, Mr. President. I will report to you about what has been investigated so far. Due to North Korea’s refusal on visitation and unreliable attitude, we have been working with terrorist experts from in and out of the country and with the National Intelligence Service Team. The first thing we found is that there are strong suspicions concerning Vice Chairman Jang Sung-tak, who is Chairman Kim Jong-un’s uncle. The ambassadors of Switzerland and Russia serving in North Korea went missing when Vice Chairman Jang Sung-tak and 16 other people were shot and killed; they were taking care of more money from North Korea and international finance than anyone else. At the time of their disappearance, these finances disappeared at the same time, and by bringing in a command officer from the integrity headquarter with the money, they seem to be able to succeed in the bombing attack.”
“Hm, seems to be similar to what North Korea has announced, correct?”
“Yes! That is correct. As of right now, this seems to be the most trustworthy information.”
As Chairman Yoon Eun-gook replied, the Head of Security Department, Oh Jang-soo probed the sensitive topic by asking, “Is it possible to have some foreign countries’ participation in this? In my opinion, it does not make sense that they were planning on doing such things, risking their lives, just because they were part of Vice Chairman Jang Sung-tak’s scheme.”
“As officer Oh Jang-soo says, there are definitely some possibilities that some other countries around Korea were part of this attack. First, we suspect Japan’s Prime minister. Abe’s supporters think that Japan could benefit more from a divided Korea rather than Korea being united; however, there has not been enough evidence from them to validate that. Second, there’s China. As a peaceful relationship continues to grow between South and North Korea, it is hard for China to have as much of influence on North Korea as before. If the relationship between South and North Korea gets better, China would definitely take a hit economically, politically, and their military would be affected. This is something the Chinese government would not be happy about. However, again, there are lots of doubts and other suspects like Japan, so there is not enough evidence to confirm this.” 2
Then the President spoke. “I see, Chairman Yoon Eun-gook. I want you to keep investigating deeper into possible relations between this incident and countries like Russia in the western side, other than China and Japan. We need something to protect Korea and something to stop the possible dangerous actions from foreign countries in order to benefit from our situation right now. Our government promises active support for this, so please contact our Head of the Security Department Oh Jang-soo to let us know anything you need.”
“Thank you, Mr. President. We will focus on getting more evidence through marginal countries and western countries.”
The conference for the August 15th Pyeongyang bombing attack ended, marking the two-hour period. In the office, there was the President, Head of the Security Department Oh Jang-soo, Chief Secretary Na Sung-tae, and four more people – including Chairman of the Transition Team, Jung Won-jin – who have just arrived.
“Chairman Jung Won-jin! I appreciate all the work you’ve done for me,” the President politely said.
The warmly smiling middle-aged gentleman replied, “Hahaha, all the hard work is worth it. The pleasure is all mine, Mr. President.”
Chairman Jung Won-jin used to be a member of congress and head of the opposition party, at least he was until President Seo Hyun-woo was elected and asked him to be the Chairman of the Transition Team – an offer that he gladly took. He was also a person who warmly worked in politics for the working class.
The President asked, “How is the plan for administration going for the Transition Team?”
“We are in the last stage of initiating the administration of the different departments. We have divided health and welfare department as two different departments; segregated into the Health Department and the Citizens Welfare Department. We have included the old gender equality and family departments into the Citizens Welfare Department. And as you most importantly mentioned, we have made a new department called the National Institute of Corruption, and have been getting ready to promote a special investigation team that was made in 1948, under Prime Minister Oh Yong-guk.”
“Thank you. I hope you can make it happen, as it is one of the promises I made.”
“Hahaha, you don’t have to worry about that!”
Thinking about the first task he wanted to make happen, President Seo Hyun-woo prioritized his job as President of the Republic of Korea by investigating and giving punishment to the pro-Japanese people from Japanese colonial era and to terminate any and all corrupted officers, organizations, or company. For the future of the Republic of Korea, the President knew it was necessary to purge the internal issues now, or else Korea would always stay the same.
If he resembled any of the prior Korean Presidents, he would not be able to even try to do what he doing. The descendants of pro-Japanese people and backlash from politics, press, and education would prevent his work. However, in this special situation that Korea is in the right and how much power the President has in all of this, he was able to initiate his political wishes.